Description
Incredibly flavorful and delicious, this lusciously Creamy Potato Soup is hearty and simple to make. Perfectly smooth and seasoned just right, this dreamy potato soup is humble comfort food at its best, making it an ultimate Whole Food Plant Based soup. Vegan, no oil, no sugar, no highly processed ingredients, and gluten free.
Ingredients
Creamy Potato Soup Ingredients:
- 1 large yellow onion, fine dice
- 2 celery ribs, finely sliced
- 2 Tablespoons flour (of choice)
- 2 ¼ cups low-sodium vegetable broth *
- 3 cups water *
- 12 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1 ¼ inch cubes (unpeeled)
- 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast (+/-)
- 1/2 cup to 2 cups unsweetened plain plant milk *
Spice/Herb Ingredients:
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ to 1 teaspoon dried crushed thyme leaves *
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary (crushed/ground)
- ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoons sea salt (+/-) *
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper (+/-)
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
Cashew Cream Ingredients:
- ½ cup raw cashews
- Boiling water – just to cover the cashews; this water will be discarded later.
- ¾ cup unsweetened plain plant milk
Optional Toppings:
- Crispy & Spicy Mini Oven-Fried Potatoes (see recipe*)
- Microgreens
- Chives
Optional Crispy & Spicy Mini Oven-Fried Potatoes Ingredients:
- 3– 4 medium Russet potatoes, cubed into super tiny pieces, approx. 1/8th inch thickness (peeled)
- Sprinkle garlic powder
- Sprinkle onion powder
- Sprinkle sweet paprika
- Sprinkle sea salt
- Sprinkle black pepper
- Tiny sprinkle cayenne pepper (optional)
Instructions
Creamy Potato Soup Instructions
- In a large ceramic/enamel lined Dutch oven/pot or similarly large stockpot, add the diced onion and diced celery. Sauté over medium-high heat for 5 to 7 minutes until the veggies are tender. (If needed to prevent sticking, add a splash of vegetable broth or water).
- Sprinkle the flour over the sautéed veggies and cook the flour for one minute. The flour will get clumpy.
- Add the vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil. See recipe notes on vegetable broth. Add all the remaining ingredients except the plant milk and cayenne pepper. Cook until the potatoes are just about done.
- Make the cashew cream by adding the boiled/soaked cashews (water discarded) and 3/4 cup plant milk to a high-speed blender. Blend on high until smooth and emulsified, then add to the pot. Then add the 2 cups of unsweetened plain plant milk to the pot. Increase the heat to boiling, the immediately lower to a simmer.
- Once the potatoes are they are tender, remove approximately 1 ½ cups of cooked potatoes from the soup pot and manually mash with a potato masher or fork, then return to the pot. Add the cayenne pepper. Simmer for 3 minutes.
- Taste test the soup flavor. This is the time you can adjust the flavor, if needed. Increase seasonings, if desired, to suit your personal preferences. Simmer for another 3 minutes and serve.
Optional Crispy & Spicy Mini Oven-Fried Potatoes Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Line a large 14 x 20 baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Peel and cube the russet potatoes into 1/8thinch tiny cubes and place in cold water as you go.
- Drain and rinse the tiny cubed potatoes, then place in a medium sized bowl.
- Sprinkle the cubed potatoes with the spice ingredients and mix well to evenly coat the cubed potatoes. (Not too much, and not too little, you want them spicy).
- Dump the spiced potatoes onto the parchment paper lined baking sheet and spread them out so they have room to breathe on all sides.
- Bake for 15 minutes at 400 F.
- Switch the oven to high broil and move the oven rack to an upper rack and broil until nicely browned.
- Remove the pan and taste test one to see if it is tender and crispy. If not, return to the oven and continue broiling until the potatoes are tender and crispy.
- When you remove them from the oven, sprinkle with a tiny bit extra sea salt and toss on the pan.Serve them as a topper on the potato soup.
Notes
*Vegetable Stock: We use Pacific Organic Vegetable Stock. We love this brand because it is Whole Food Plant Based compliant, as it does not contain MSG, has no oil, and does not contain any highly-processed ingredients; however, this brand of vegetable stock does have a strong flavor so less broth is required when compared to the water ratio. We use a higher water to broth ratio because of this. If you are using a brand other than Pacific vegetable broth, then consider adjusting the water/vegetable broth ratio accordingly. For example, if you are using a very mellow vegetable broth, you might consider 4 cups of vegetable broth and 1 1/4 cups of water for this recipe. Please adjust the recipe (broth/water ratio) accordingly based upon the vegetable broth brand used if using other than Pacific Organic Vegetable Stock. Update: Low-Sodium Pacific Organic Vegetable Stock changed their recipe for this broth. It is no longer as strong as it was. We have adjusted the recipe slightly to reflect this change. We kept the information (in this paragraph) to show how the original recipe was written.
*Unsweetened Plain Plant Milk: We suggest starting with a lower amount of plant milk in the Creamy Potato Soup Ingredients (1/2 cup) and building from there if you need to increase it. If the soup is too thick add water/broth a little at a time to compensate for less milk.
*Thyme Leaves: We use Penzeys French Thyme. It has amazing flavor. Please note that dried crushed thyme leaves is not the same as ground thyme. You can use either in this recipe. We used dried crushed thyme leaves, so if you are using ground thyme, scale back a little more than half of the amount used, and check for flavor. Adjust as preferred.
*Sea Salt: Sea salt is based on personal preference. We added two additional teaspoons of sea salt to this soup.
*Serving: Makes 9 to 11 cups.